| Ardaite | |
| Category: | Sulfosalt minerals, Lead minerals |
| Formula: | Pb19Sb13S35Cl7 |
| Imasymbol: | Ada[1] |
| Dana: | 02.15.01.01 |
| Strunz: | 2.LB.30 (10 ed) 2/E.19-20 (8 ed) |
| System: | Monoclinic Unknown space group |
| Color: | Greenish gray or bluish green |
| Mohs: | 2.5-3 |
| Luster: | Metallic |
| Pleochroism: | Weak |
| Density: | 6.44 |
Ardaite is a very rare sulfosalt mineral with chemical formula Pb19Sb13S35Cl7 in the monoclinic crystal system,[2] [3] named after the Arda River, which passes through the type locality.[4] It was discovered in 1978 and approved by the International Mineralogical Association in 1980. It was the second well-defined natural chlorosulfosalt, after dadsonite.
Greenish gray or bluish green in color, its luster is metallic. Ardaite occurs as 50 μm fine-grained aggregates of acicular crystals associated with galena, pyrostilpnite, anglesite, nadorite, and chlorine-bearing robinsonite and semseyite, in the Madjarovo polymetallic ore deposit in Bulgaria. Ardaite has a hardness of 2.5 to 3 on Mohs scale and a density of approximately 6.44.
The type locality is the Madjarovo polymetallic ore deposit in the Rhodope Mountains.[5] [6] Later its occurrence was proved in the Gruvåsen deposit, near Filipstad, Bergslagen, Sweden.
List of minerals recognized by the International Mineralogical Association